FAQ

The rare daily word game sweeping the globe - same grid, one planet, every day. You get 10 guesses on a 5×5 board to build real words from any combination of letters. Rarity is the score, not volume: the common, obvious words pay the least, so resist the urge to grab them. Find the words everyone else misses and you climb the worldwide leaderboard, ranked against every player on Earth. Players in dozens of cities across five continents are hunting the same letters as you right now.

An Outlier is someone who sees what most people miss - the rare word in a sea of common ones. Every day, players around the world stare at the same 25 letters, and most see the same handful of safe finds. Outliers think differently. They spot the obscure verb, the forgotten root, the word nobody else types. Playing this game is how you prove you’re one of them - and find the others. Join Outlier’s fast-growing global community of sharp thinkers, word lovers, and daily challengers taking the internet by storm.

Yes - completely free. No ads, no paywalls, no premium tier. One game a day, same grid for everyone on Earth, scored on rarity. Make a free account to claim a handle, save your streak, and join the global community of Outliers competing every day.

You’re picking 10 words. Build real words of 4+ letters from the grid - letters don’t have to touch, but you can’t use a letter more often than it appears. Build rare words, not common ones: rarity is the whole score. Lock in when you’re done.

Ten - but only successful finds count against the ten. Anything that doesn’t land a new word - too short, misspelled, already found, or not in today’s set - is a free retry. The budget is "10 words found," not "10 attempts."

Sure - just come back where you left off. Your finds are saved on this device, so you can pick up where you stopped any time before the new game drops at 16:00 UTC (12 PM Eastern). Once the new game drops, the grid resets and any unlocked progress is gone.

16:00 UTC (12 PM Eastern), every day. A fresh 5×5 grid drops worldwide at the same instant.

Every word has a permanent Rarity Score from 0 to 100, set before the puzzle drops. Each find earns points based on its rarity - rarer words pay more. The max each find can earn depends on its tier: COMMON +50, UNCOMMON +75, RARE +85, EPIC +90, SUPER RARE +95, OUTLIER +100. Max score: 1,000 per game. The math is the same on every board, so scores compare cleanly across days.

Rarity beats volume. One Rarity-90 word can outscore a long list of common ones. That’s the whole game.

Two paths to the top. Your total score climbs you through SCOUT → SHARP EYE → KEEN → SHARPSHOOTER as you cross 300, 500, and 750 points. A single rare-enough find can unlock OUTLIER, ELITE OUTLIER, or LEGEND on its own - those tiers are rarity-gated, not score-gated. Most games land between SHARP EYE and SHARPSHOOTER; the rarity tiers are where the real flexing happens.

Your rarest find is your tiebreaker. When two players tie on total score, the daily rank is broken by the rarity of their single best find, and then by who locked in earlier. No two players share a rank. So your rarest word does double duty: it adds to your score and it settles ties against everyone level with you. On a tight board where lots of players cluster at similar totals, one standout rare find can jump you past the whole cluster, so it is worth spending a late guess hunting a single exceptional word even if it barely moves your total. And when you can, lock in earlier: if you and a rival tie on both score and best find, the earlier lock takes the rank. It rarely decides a board, but in a close group it is a free edge for the player who does not dawdle.

Play OUTLIER on at least 3 days. We need a few scores before your standing means anything against the whole field, so your worldwide rank badge appears on your third locked-in day. Play one brilliant game and you’ll still have a profile - you just won’t carry a rank badge until then.

By consistency. Each day you finish somewhere in the field, and your standing is built from how high you place day after day, shown as a consistency rating, higher is better. Finishing near the top repeatedly is what lifts it. Your average score sits beside the rating as supporting info and breaks ties.

No. Playing more does not automatically move you up. A longer history doesn’t earn you a higher spot, it just gives your rating more confidence: if two players are genuinely close, the one with the longer proven record may edge ahead, because there’s more evidence they really play at that level. A player with only a handful of games can absolutely rank above players with far more games if their daily placements are strong enough.

You’re under the 3-game qualifier. Play tomorrow’s Outlier and your worldwide rank badge appears everywhere your handle shows up - profile header, leaderboards, challenge standings, country pages.

The day’s standout rare words. Find every one of them and you earn LEGEND.

At the end of the day. While the day is live you’ll see a LEADER badge on your day card - that means you’re currently #1, but the standing isn’t settled until 16:00 UTC (12 PM ET). Once the day rolls over, LEADER converts to WINNER and the win counts toward your Worldwide Wins tally.

That is Encore - a gentle anti-memorization rule on the daily board. The first two times you find a given rare word (EPIC or rarer) it pays full; from the third time on, re-finding that same word across grids pays a bit less, down to a floor. Common and uncommon words are never affected, and finds fade on a 60-day half-life so a word you haven’t used in months counts as fresh again. It keeps the game about discovery, not memorizing a list. Your score is set the moment you lock and never changes afterward.

Your standing on that day's leaderboard expressed as a percentile - Top 1% means you placed in the top 1% of players who locked in. Unlike a raw point total (which depends on how many people played), percentile means the same thing every day. Shown as a small line under the score number.

Four boards, each answering a different question. Today is the live daily ranking. This Season is the monthly race. Hall of Fame is the all-time greats, ranked by peak skill. Most Consistent rewards the players who beat the field day after day. Every leaderboard page shares the same tab bar so you can jump between them in one tap.

A Season is one calendar month. On the 1st, everything resets and everyone starts level. Your season score is the average of your best 12 days that month, so a couple of missed days won't sink you and a newcomer can still stack 12 great boards and win. Every month is a fresh shot at #1 for everyone.

Every finished season crowns a full podium: Champion (1st), Runner-Up (2nd), and Third (3rd). While a season is live the top reads Leader, Runner-Up and Third. Win a place and a crown or medal badge appears permanently on your profile, linking back to the season you earned it in.

Yes. Across the whole year the same math runs on your best 30 days to crown the Player of the Year, decided on December 31. Monthly medals are the sprint; Player of the Year is the marathon.

Hall of Fame ranks all-time peak skill: a blend of your best 10 and best 3 days ever, so it rewards how high you can reach. Most Consistent rewards the opposite virtue - finishing near the top of the field, steadily, over a long record. Both are real achievements; they're just different ones, so they get their own boards.

Play, claim a handle, and you appear automatically. A few games gets you a daily and seasonal rank; the all-time boards ask for a slightly longer record so a lucky day or two can't fake a career. Every board lists every eligible player, so you can scroll down and find yourself wherever you land.

Because most boards rank on more than raw average. The Hall of Fame rewards your best days (peak skill), Most Consistent rewards how reliably you beat the field, and Seasons use your best 12 days of the month. In a game with a ceiling of 1000, the sharpest players are defined by their peaks, not their middle-of-the-road days. The full reasoning is in the leaderboards guide.

On your profile page. It is your full OUTLIER record in one place: your rank, your best and average scores, your streak, your rarity mix, your signature finds, your Word DNA, your Outlier Live record, and trend charts for every metric over time. Use the Go to your profile link below to jump straight to your own profile, or open anyone's by clicking their handle anywhere their name appears.

They measure two different things. The title under your name is your skill level on a single game, earned by your score and your rarest find that day: SCOUT, SHARP EYE, KEEN, SHARPSHOOTER, then the rarity-gated OUTLIER, ELITE OUTLIER and LEGEND. Your worldwide rank (the Worldwide #N badge) is your standing against every player on Earth, built from how high you place day after day. One is how good a game was; the other is how you stack up over time.

Each chart plots one number for every day you have played, oldest to newest, so you can see your trajectory at a glance. Score is your daily total out of 1,000. Day rank is where you finished on that day's leaderboard (lower is better, so the line is flipped: higher on the chart means a better finish). Worldwide rank is your global standing on each day. Country rank is the same within your country. Tap or click any chart to expand it to your full history with a 10-day, 30-day or all-time filter.

All-time best is your single highest game score and the day you set it, in accent color on the left. Average is your mean score across every game you have locked in, with the game count beneath it. Best shows your ceiling; Average shows your true level, since one lucky board does not move it much. Watching your Average climb over weeks is the cleanest signal that you are actually getting better.

Three things. Days active is your current run of consecutive days played. Played percent is the share of days you have shown up since you started, with a flame at 100 percent for a perfect record. Longest is your best streak ever. Streaks are the habit metric: keeping the number alive is the single best way to keep improving, since rank is built on consistency, not one big game.

A breakdown of every word you have ever found, sorted into tiers from COMMON up to OUTLIER, with a bar and a percentage for each. It is your style on a card: a profile heavy on COMMON means you grab safe words, while a tail of RARE, EPIC and OUTLIER finds means you hunt the words others miss. Since rarity is the whole score, shifting your mix toward the rarer tiers is exactly how your scores rise.

Your signature stats. Rarest find is the single most obscure word you have ever landed, with its tier, rarity number and points. Only you found counts the words you discovered that no one else in the field did that day, the truest proof you think differently. Best board is the terrain type you score highest on, so you know your home turf. These are the lines worth screenshotting and sharing.

Word DNA is your player identity distilled from how you actually play. It names your style, then backs it with four numbers: Vocabulary is the count of unique words you have ever discovered, Rare or better is the share of your finds that beat the field, Longest find is the longest single word you have played, and Top 5 percent days counts the days you finished in the elite of the whole field. Together they describe what kind of Outlier you are.

If a player has played Outlier Live, the head-to-head party mode, their profile shows a win-loss record. It only appears once they have played at least one live game, and a player can hide it in settings. It sits separate from the daily stats because Live is a different game: real-time rounds against other people, not the once-a-day solo board.

Last active shows when a player last visited, within the past 24 hours, on other people's profiles (it is hidden on your own). A pulsing Live badge means they are playing a live game right this second. Both are there so the game feels alive and so you know when a rival is around to challenge.

Because it turns scattered daily games into one honest scoreboard you own. A single game is noisy: a great board or a rough one tells you little. The profile smooths that into trends, your Average over time, your rank trajectory, your rarity mix shifting toward the rare tiers, and shows whether you are genuinely improving or just having a good day. It also makes progress motivating: a visible streak you do not want to break, a personal best to chase, a rank to defend. Check it weekly, watch the lines move, and you will see the climb you cannot feel game to game.

Your profile is public by default so your handle, rank and stats show up on leaderboards and challenge standings, which is how the community and rivalries work. If you would rather not appear, you can switch your profile to private in settings, which removes you from public leaderboards and hides your stats from others. Your own data stays fully visible to you.

It’s a real word and you can spell it from the grid, but OUTLIER uses a curated word list - yours isn’t in the accepted set for this puzzle. No guess is used; pick a new word.

Two reasons can fire: the word uses a letter that isn’t on the grid (you’ll see “This is not a word.”), or the word uses a letter more times than the grid shows (you’ll see “This word is not found on the grid.”). Either way no guess is consumed - try a different word.

OUTLIER blocks slurs, hate terms, and explicit profanity from counting as finds - even when they’re in the dictionary. The game is built to be family-friendly, so a small denylist of those words is enforced. No guess is consumed; pick another word.

No. Unlike a word search, letters can sit anywhere on the grid. The only rule is you can’t reuse a letter more often than it appears.

OUTLIER hides actual word strings from every public surface - leaderboard, profile, replay, share pages - until the day ends. Even after you lock in. That way nobody, including the people who already played, can spoil today’s puzzle for someone who hasn’t played yet. The words appear automatically once the day rolls over at 16:00 UTC (12 PM ET).

No - you can play right away, and your progress is saved to this browser. Claiming a handle adds a public profile, a spot on the leaderboard, and lets you play from any device.

There’s no password. Enter your email and we send a one-tap sign-in link.

Yes - once you’ve claimed a handle and signed in. Without an account, your history lives on a single browser.

Yes. Go to Settings → Danger → Delete account. You’ll be asked to type DELETE MY ACCOUNT to confirm. Your handle, profile, and leaderboard entries are removed immediately; the next time you play you’ll start fresh as a new anonymous player. Guests with at least one locked game get a Delete playing history option using the same flow.

A head-to-head on the exact same grid. You send a friend a challenge link, they play that day’s Outlier, and both scores sit side by side on a shared standings page. It’s OUTLIER with someone specific to beat.

After you lock in the day’s game, tap the “Challenge a friend” button on your result screen - or use the create button on the Challenges page. You get a link to send to anyone.

Open their link and play the day’s Outlier the normal way. When you lock in, your score drops onto the challenge standings automatically. There’s no separate game - your regular daily play is the challenge.

No. You play the day’s Outlier once, and that single score counts for every challenge you’ve been sent for that day.

Anyone with the link can take it. Challenges you create also appear on your public profile, so any player can pick one up and try to beat your score.

Yes. A challenge is tied to one day’s Outlier. Once that day closes, the challenge locks - scores are final and no one new can join.

The Challenges page lists every challenge you’ve started, every one sent to you, and every one you’ve joined. It’s in the menu too.

The same rare word game you love, now live and head to head. Play one on one or with a whole group: everyone gets the SAME special board at the same time, and you race through 10 rounds with a 60-second timer on each. Lock one word per round; when the buzzer sounds the rarest word takes it, up to 100 points a round and 1000 max per game. Most points wins the bragging rights. Live boards are separate from the daily Outlier and never repeat for you. Currently in beta.

Same rare-word engine, two different games. The Daily is one board shared by the whole world, dropping at noon ET: you play on your own time, take your 10 guesses, and your score ranks you against everyone on Earth. Outlier Live is your own game with your own people, happening right now: everyone in your room gets the same special board (never the daily one), and you race through 10 rounds with a 60-second timer, rarest word taking each round. Short version: the Daily is you against the world. Live is you against your people, in real time.

Share it - Outlier Live is at its best with a crowd. Start a game, then send the invite link to your group chat, your family thread, your coworkers: everyone who taps it lands in your lobby with just a name. The lobby has a live chat, so the early arrivals can talk while the room fills. You, the host, control the start: wait until enough players are in, then hit Start the game and everyone drops into round 1 together. Two players is a duel; five or more is a party.

Private (the default) means your game is invisible: only people with your invite link or game code can get in. Public means your game is listed in the live lobby for anyone to join - look for the PUBLIC chip with the little globe on lobby cards. You pick Public or Private when you start a game, and either way the gameplay is identical.

The lobby is the front door to public games. Open games are rooms still filling up: tap Join and you're seated, and the game starts itself shortly after a player is in - a short countdown runs (roughly 30 to 45 seconds), so there's time for hellos before round 1. No waiting on a host to press anything. Playing now shows games already mid-match: tap Watch to pull up a seat. There's almost always something to join or watch.

Yes - spectator mode. Tap Watch on any Playing now game in the lobby and you'll see every reveal land, round by round, plus the live standings. Spectators can't lock words or chat, so the game stays fair. When you're ready to play, the next open game is one tap away.

No. Hosting needs a free account so your games and standings have a home, but the people you invite join with just a name and the invite link or game code. They can claim a handle afterward to keep their results.

Rarest wins: common words score lower, and the rarer the word the more it's worth. One word on the clock: lock one word each round before the buzzer. Letters float free: they don't need to touch, but never use a letter more times than it appears. Always lock SOMETHING: any word beats an empty hand, because nothing scores 0. Played words burn: a word you or anyone else already used won't count again. Your first lock is final - no changing it once it's in.

In a two-player game you'll see a reconnecting notice, and if your rival stays gone you can keep playing or take the win by forfeit. Reconnecting is painless: reopening the invite link drops a player straight back into the round in progress. In bigger games the rounds simply keep rolling.

It's new and we're polishing it daily. Rules, pacing, and screens may evolve, and you may catch the occasional rough edge. If something feels off, use the feedback link - live reports shape what gets fixed next.

Groups are your own daily leaderboards. Everyone in a group plays the same daily puzzle, and the group ranks you against each other. Great for friends, family, or coworkers.

Open the Groups page and tap Create a group. Give it a name and crest, choose Public or Private, and you become the leader. You need a claimed username first.

A Public group can be found in search and shows its standings to anyone. The leader chooses whether people can ask to join. A Private group is invite-only and hidden, so you share its invite link to add people.

Three ways: open the group's invite link to join instantly, ask to join a public group (a leader approves it, or it auto-approves if the leader turned that on), or get added by a leader using your username.

Each day the group is ranked by score, and the weekly view shows averages over time. Tap any day to open its full results.

A leader can challenge another group to a head-to-head, ranked by average score per member. Both groups opt in, then the comparison shows on each group's page.

Yes. In Settings, under Groups, turn on the opt-out. After that, leaders can't add you, though you can still join with an invite link or by asking to join a public group.

No. Replaying a past Outlier never touches your score or rank. Play freely.

No. Locking your score ends the day’s Outlier - you’ll be asked to confirm first.

Your result page has a copyable score and a downloadable card; the Share page sends the game itself. The fastest move: a group chat where everyone posts their score.

OUTLIER was built by Michael Szerencsy, an entrepreneur based in New York. He designed the game around a single twist - score the rarest finds, not the most. Send feedback any time; it goes straight to him.